Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-04-01
A NERVOUS MANS VAIL.
PEOPLE WHO THOUGHTLEGSl.Y SET
OTHER FOLKS NERVES tOGE.


The Aggravating Habits to Which Some
of Natures EoJ:cmen Are Addicted.
Biting the Nails-"Thc DEVILS Tattoo"
10y and blackboard.
Tie other day called on q. c""tlerlnn
fer whom l E:lv. to i:.gG. I i ;.:::1
WHO las On several occas uns r~)vcd to
me thct he is one Of natures nOblemen; .
MIN Who never by any means lets his let
hand know what his right is doin:,. cnd
whose right hand is continually doing
COOL and yet before / left him | could
have taken both his right and left hands
and chcerfully chopped ''rm off, and this
is why: During the c interview his
good right hand kept cracking the joints
of the fingers of his equally good left
hand and vice versa. Now, If there is one
thing more than UEot that puts my
nerves on edge and n.cles my blood run
cold it is to have u man sit alongside of
me and crack his finge md consequently
during that whole intei ew was in con-
tinual struggle between my desire to
listen to my good friends talk and my
other desire to strangle him. Yet he,
good, easy soul, knew nothing of this, and
went ON chatting and cracking, utterly
unconscious of the suppressed volcano that
threatened every moment to burst and
overwhelm him.
AN AGGRAvATING HABIT.
Now, l don't believe am any more nerv-
Gus than the rest of my kind, and yet,
after / left my friend, thought of SO
many petty annoyances like this that dis
turb my peace that fairly wonder that
have lived as long as have without hay
ing murdered somebody. For instance,
know man whose life must be in danger
all the time because OF an aggravating
habit he has of biting his nails. When
ever he talks to me and begins TO chew
his fingers have to turn my head away,
because while l look at him feel as
though 1t is my nails he is biting and q
sensation goes through me as though
every bite he took pulled out my nerves
with it. Then there is another dear friend
Of mine who often drops into my office for
a chat, and who invariably sits down at
my desk and begins to beat the devils
tattoo" on it. / stand it for while until
unconsciously join him in the ncndish
music, and then away we 60 with our
dreary rub-a-dub until everybody in the
room rises In revolt and demands an in
slant cessation Of the awful noise.
How many men there are who cannot
talk with you without having hold Of you.
They generally prefer button on your
coat, or if there is none handy then the
lapel will do. They will pull and haul at
you until your only hope lies in the hon
esty of your tailor, and you almost wish
that he had put in some bad stitches, so
that something will give way and you can
make your escape from the bore. Not
long ago somebody gave me little silver
pencil, which in my pride hung on my
watch chain. And then my trouble began.
Two out Of every three persons I met
grabbed that pencil and played with it,
pulling it out and shutting it and demand
ing to know what it was for and how
got it, etc. In about two weeks it was en-
tirely worn out and perfectly useless.
have since been thinking seriously Of get
ting some sort of pocket electric battery,
and whenever any of my friends begin to
daily with the watch charm turn on the
current and let him have it just to show
him that his fingers are where they should
not be. Some people, suppose, would
think was wrong in doing this, but let
them mount a pencil like l did and I'll
guarantee that they will cheerfully adopt
the electric battery cure.
TwIRLING HIS THUMBS.
Among the other things that make my
life miserable hold chief the man who
sits opposite me in the street cars and con-
tinually twirls his thumbs. / cannot help
watching him; and / remember one day
how / astonished one gentleman who had
been twirling away for half an hour by
leaning across the car and asking him as
nv,nvf nv 70 fhxav No
could not stand the way they were turn
was little bit crazy, and put his hands
in his pockets. Have you ever sat in a
room where silence was only broken by
the scratch Of q bad pen in somebody's
handss Nice, is it not'
l knew newspaper man whose little
boy is the proud possessor Of n black
board and takes great deal of pleasure
| in writing on 1t with chalk. Now, that
| journalist loves his son, and yet he says
that whenever that boy, that chalk and
that blackboard come into contact the
sound produced is simply maddening, and
he has either to put an end to it at once
or incontinently flee the room in order to
save his mind from utter destruction.
Everybody has experienced the fiendish
snorer, but as most everybody shores
anyway there is always q chance Of get
ting even with somebody, even il it's only
the wife Of your bosom. There are some
persons in this world who, but for bad
habit they have Of filling their sentences
with ''dy' see'" or asking the utterly
idiotic question, SIS that so?'' might be
worthy citizens Of the community. I
don't know many things more aggravat-
ing than to have a man say "Dy' see!'
with every other word he utters or reply
to everything tell him with an utterly
fatuous "Is that so"'-"Observer" in
Philadelphia Call.